Tag: storm

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Praying for Nashville

This morning I prayed for Nashville, Tennessee which was devastated last night with a major overnight tornado.

For those who don’t know, I lived in Nashville for about 37 years (1977-2014, minus 3 in The Gambia) and lived in two of the neighborhoods hit by the tornado last night, Germantown and Hermitage, thus the destruction is very real to me plus I knew people in other areas hit bad, like East Nashville.

But I also know Nashvillians and that they will work together to get through this and be a stronger community because of it. Yet still, I send my sympathies to the many families who lost loved ones last night (19 at last report seen).  Washington Post Article on Storm.

bible verses to get through hard times Beautiful Some inspirational quotes to you through the tough

To Nashville

Love & Pura Vida from your friend in Costa Rica.

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Sleet or Hail – In Costa Rica !?

Sleet or Hail !
The fact that it was raining a second afternoon in a row is amazing in February!
But ICE is unheard of in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, at any time! (only at tops of a few high mountains)
I increased the contrast of photo a little – all the white spots are bits of ice – sleet or hail. (cell phone photo)
Ticos were trying to photograph something they had never seen before! It melted fast!
Atenas, Costa Rica

Okay, so you have had some strange weather in the states too! Weather seems to be out of the ordinary everywhere in the world now. And there are still people who don’t believe in climate change or global warming. Wow! Saturday and Sunday afternoon were the first two rains we have had in this calendar year, unusual even without the ice! It is Dry Season here! Shocked tourists?

I was eating a late lunch of fish at Colinas del Sol Hotel Restaurant near my house when it started raining with the first minute or so including ice. Above shot on concrete sidewalk outside restaurant.
¡Pura Vida!


5.2 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Costa Rica This Monday Morning  This was way down south where I will be in two weeks, near Puerto Jimenez and Corcovado National Park. We did have a smaller tremor in Atenas Saturday which strangely I did not feel but “heard!” Mejor clima del mundo?  🙂


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Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + Nothing Escaped Nate

Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador
My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador
As seen from the street in front of my house
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

And don’t you love the Spanish name for this flower? El bastón de emperador translates to “The Emperor’s Staff.” This particular one was a gift from my gardener. The first one I got and paid for died because it was in my busy flower bed and did not get enough sun like this gets in the front yard. Note that I have 3 flowers at different stages, bud, small flower and large flower. It is one of my favorite tropical flowers and I have wanted one since I moved here. They are hard to find with most nurseries (viveros) not having any in stock. But my gardener Cristian knows where to find things!  🙂  Like when I wanted the Maraca plant (Shampoo Ginger) none of the nurseries had one, so his partner Alfredo got mine from his uncle’s yard! Wow! They are more than gardners. They are good friends!

And in spite of the horrible weather we have been having, I still have flowers blooming!  🙂

UPDATE ON TROPICAL STORM NATE IN COSTA RICA
Schools have been closed since Wednesday and most government offices. Everything was closed yesterday (Thursday) the main day it hit us with medium high winds and very heavy rain, closing many more roads including parts of the two main highways to Atenas because of mudslides. The saddest was a mudslide just on the edge of Atenas that killed a little boy and destroyed many houses. He was the only death in Atenas. For all of Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Honduras I heard this morning that 23 were killed and 27 missing. The major causes of death are drowning and buried by mudslides, though some in auto accidents. Here is a locally produced slideshow video of rescue and cleanup efforts.  Or the usual live video from Weather.com.  And the Tico Times Article in English. 

If this is just a “tropical storm,” think how bad it will be as a hurricane, which is what it is becoming tonight (Friday) when it hits Cancun, Mexico and moves on to the U.S. Gulf Coast, possibly New Orleans by Sunday morning. This could be a “biggie!” 
Costa Rica is directly to the left of the word RAIN
In Atenas everyone stayed home yesterday (Thursday) with strong winds and heavy rain all day and all night. Today we are getting a little sunshine and I walked to town. It is interesting that all hills, cliffs, dirt walls have lots of water coming out at the bottom. A hill near my house has so much water coming out that it is literally a little creek pouring down to the street drainage ditch. Government and schools are still closed, but banks and most businesses open and we had the regular Friday morning Feria or Farmer’s Market. So almost back to normal with a few trees down and spotty electrical outages. But me and my house are good on all counts! I can even make this blog post, meaning internet works! That’s a big deal here!    Here are some more  photos and videos of Nate Hitting Costa Rica from Tico Times.



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Ready for Hurricane Otto!

Copied from La Nacion  –   Heavy rains & flooding BEFORE the hurricane hits in Caribe.

Costa Rica’s first hurricane since 1851 is expected to hit land tonight in the northern Caribbean near by beloved Tortuguero National Park or further north in Nicaragua. Atenas is not in the “Red Zone” that expects the most wind and rain, but we will get both all day on the American Thanksgiving while I eat turkey with my neighbor.

For more on the hurricane, today’s Tico Times article

And track it on The Weather Channel and a hundred other websites!  🙂

And the best coverage in Spanish is in our national newspaper La Nacion which Google will translate into English for you. Lots of photos and videos.

They are forecasting up to 20 inches of rain and very high winds in the path (north of us) as it travels all the way across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean. We will get rain as we have all day today and some winds, but probably not the very high, damaging winds. Yet hurricanes do change paths sometimes, so I bought my bottled water and prepared if it knocks out our power and water. Which could mean no blog post tomorrow night! 🙂

There wasn’t a run on water at the supermercado,
meaning I guess that most don’t really expect us to have much damage.
I’m always the Boy Scout! Being prepared!